We had ourselves a raging time in Austin earlier this month and we wanted to share our top images from our favorite festival.
All Photos by Robert Castro/Ultra5280
We had ourselves a raging time in Austin earlier this month and we wanted to share our top images from our favorite festival.
All Photos by Robert Castro/Ultra5280
Our final day of the festival had us excited for a few awesome bands. Our day got started with seeing the buzz worthy Halsey who has been burning up the airwaves as of late with a slew of hits. Riding the waves of her debut EP Room 93 and recently released first studio album Badlands, Halsey's indie-pop sound has resonated with us and we have been playing her record for awhile now. Her performance was simple and entertaining coming off with a saayness from somebody you would have figured to have been playing for years.
Sunday gave us a chance to walk around the festival and enjoy many of the amenities, which by the way are the best of any festival. Getting a chance to check Austin Eats and the amount of great food had us pretty full after shopping for a few items in the Festival Boutique area. A craft beer section had us feeling right at home as we sampled an array of some of the country's best beers.
Next up for us was one of favorite hip hop artist Chance The Rapper, the last time we Chance he was performing to packed crowd at this years Fader Fort during SXSW. With a live band at his disposal, Chance's sound has created a new dynamic that is easy to follow and even better to sing a long to. Reaching back to hits from Acid Rap as well as a few new numbers made for one of the best sets of the festival. Chance will be heading to Denver soon and we highly recommend seeing him.
One set that we wish would have been a little later would have been alt-j's set. We had a chance to see them at Red Rocks earlier this year and were amazed by the visual lighting that elevated the performance to one of the best we have seen this year. As the sun was setting the killer lighting took awhile to kick in. After about 45 minutes or so we could see the amazing production from far away. Alt-J is a band who you either love or hate, for us luckily we have been big fans for awhile now. Their unique approach to music sets them apart from anything we have heard and while they may not be the best showman in the business being able to close your eyes and enjoy the music is enough for us to consider them worthy.
As night began to descent upon us we were ready to get our festival ended with a few bands we have grown to love. First up was Hozier, a band we first heard about during SXSW (funny how a few months after playing that festival elevates certain bands to big time festival status). We first saw them at The Fox Theater in Boulder a few months ago, he has since gone on to play bigger venues including a mesmerizing performance at Red Rocks late this Summer. One thing we enjoy as photographers is great lighting and the production team behind Hozier does it best. Sometimes simple is better and his performances have won us over each and every single time we have seen him perform.
The final act of the night had us torn between seeing Florence and the Machine and The Weeknd. It finally came down to the fact that we have never seen The Weeeknd and the fact that he is probably the hottest thing in music right now. With a slew of Billboard hits at his disposal and just aired SNL performance the timing couldn't be better. The Weeknd did not disappoint as he ripped through all his hits in true to form fashion as he had the whole crowd singing every word of every single song, something rarely seen. With a backdrop of elevated lED's and his band perched above it left him all alone at the bottom doing what he does and that is put on a show for the ages. Hands down a perfect way to end our festival. Until next year ACL!
Day three started off with a bang as a couple of dance friendly groups started the day off. Early sets from KONGOS, Cults, AFI and Nikki Lane brought out the early crowds who skipped football in exchange for great live music. Fitz and The Tantrums had a rather large crowd for their performance as The Honda Stage. The group performed their customary radio friendly hits to a rather large crowd who grooved and danced to the bands slew of hits. Another one of our favorite groups Phantogram have placed themselves amongst one of our favorite bands to photograph, maybe it has something to do with the lovely Sarah Barthel, actually it has everything to do with the lovely Sarah Barthel, sorry Josh. The band would have been more fitting with a later set to truly demonstrate their touring production that involves a rather pleasant light show. Nonetheless they managed to destroy their set and give us no reason to believe this band will be making great music for years to come.
As the sun began to set the festivals remaining acts brought out their best. With packed crowds for Chromeo, Jenny Lewis and hometown boys Spoon, each respected band gave attendees their moneys worth. The festivals biggest draw would have had to been the weekend two only performance from teen sensation Lorde. Many were buzzing as to why she wasn't on the main stage, the smaller Retail Me Not stage proved for a rather intimate show when it began, but ended with a crowd stretching far off almost to the main stage by mid-set. Lorde took the stage and erupted with her unique voice and penchant stage theatrics that had us scrambling trying to get a decent shot. By now everybody has enthralled the lyrics to "Royals" into their brains and hearing it live proved once again why Lorde has become a household name. By far one of the best performances of the festivals.
Sunday night belonged to two of the best electronic act DJ's around. A worthy performance by Zedd had crowds raging and dancing to his now classic chart busters such as "Clarity" and "Stay The Night". With a eye piercing light show complimented with fireworks Zedd managed to warm up the crowd for the next act right next door. As the finishing beat from Zedd finished it was Calvin Harris's turn to inflict damage. Known as one of the best dance DJ's around Harris proved why he has become a main stage headlining act. Working along some of the best in the business his production credits include a who's who of the industry's best. Hits from Rihanna to Elle Goulding have made him a EDM household name and judging by his live performance we know why. While most of the crowd split to catch the other headliner, Calvin Harris managed to win the crowd over young and old. We only caught enough of his set to feed our dance soul.
The nights last act was one that I hold dear to my heart. Pearl Jam has been gracing us with great music since the early 90's. It was the album Ten that played a huge role in my love for music. Walking down to se them from a distance made for a trip down memory lane as I was once again thrust back in time to my high school years and reliving the soundtrack to my youth. The 2014 Austin City Limits Music Festival couldn't have ended on a brighter note. Thank you Austin, we will see you again next year.
CHEC OUT OUR DAY THREE SLIDESHOW.
Day Two | Austin City Limits
Day two brought rainy showers and muddy conditions to the grounds of Zilker. Nothing that was going to stop us from a days worth of great music. With the conditions as described many revelers stayed at one spot for the duration of the day instead of trekking across muddy terrain like us. The day's highlights spanned beyond multiple stages including performances from Iggy Azalea above. She had the Retail Me Not Stage blasting wither own brand of hip hop that has been blazing radio airwaves the last few months. With backup dancers at hand Azalea gave the crowd what they came to see and more.
As we made our way to the Honda Stage we managed to take time to check out some of the finer things the festival has to offer besides music. A village art shop, a craft beer tent, several festival sponsors promoting their latest products, a merchandise booth the size of Rhode Island, and food that would make anybody hungry for seconds. A few weeks ago we had a chance to see Interpol play at The Ogden Theatre to a sold out crowd. With new material at hand it was nice to get a chance to take in their latest album on a live scale. Their performance at ACL brought out a different setlist, they managed to dig deep into the classics and give us a treat worth of nostalgic material that had huge smiles on our face. Throw in a few newer hits in the mix and you had one of the best sets of the day. Early sets from Polica, The Head and The Heart, Empires, tUnE-yArDs, and Lucius made for a great start.
As night began to take over we were bustling around to see where our musical thirst would take us. At one end of the park we could hear the angelic voice of Lana Del Rey, on the other we prepared for another weekend highlighting set from Broken Bells. The masterminds behind Broken Bells consist of producer Danger Mouse and The Shins frontman James Mercer. With a new album just being released it was a chance to see how the sound would translate into a live setting. Not only did they surpass our expectations, but their new production live show blew us away. With two podiums set up from Mercer and Danger Mouse both commanded the set like captains of the starship Enterprise. Throw in a killer light show and you had quite possibly one of the most visual acts on the bill.
Next up was the nights headliners, on one end we had reigning EDM pioneer Skrillex and on the other hip hop royalty Eminem. To say this was one of our biggest scheduling conflicts speaks to the amount of people that packed both stages. We weren't granted photo access for Eminem so we made our way to the mothership to catch Skrillex (reports of him and Diplo crashing a house party comes to us at no surprise). Having the same stage setup as he did at Red Rocks earlier this Summer, we were interested to see how the Austin crowd would react to the grand production of laser lights and smoke. A huge curtain baring the alien symbol from his last album hid the spaceship as crews began putting the finishing touches on his stage. As soon as the tarp dropped all hell broke loose with the signature dubstep sound Skrillex revolutionized. Song after song those in attendance danced and danced, from young old, the headliner proved once agin why he has established himself as headlining material. We managed to catch some of Eminem's set from afar and forgot how many hits he had in his arsenal. Day two left us deaf and ready to finish the final chapter on Sunday.
CHECK OUT OUR DAY TWO SLIDESHOW